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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

This Little Piggy Cried All The Way Home

We just returned to Colorado from a wonderful Thanksgiving week in Los Angeles. Both APL and I grew up there, so there were lots and lots of people to see. I left my casebooks in my backpack and just enjoyed myself for pretty much the whole week. (Which may or may not have been a mistake considering my upcoming exams, but too late now!)

We stayed in my mom's beautiful Spanish-style house, played with her sweet dog Harley, and watched ancient home videos. (I was a damn cute baby!) We had brunch with my Great Uncle (also my godfather) who just celebrated his 81st birthday. APL, my good friend CC, and I had mommy & me day with all of our mamas at The Getty Villa, a beautiful museum in Malibu, where we walked the grounds, played in the kids discovery room, and had a lovely lunch. APL and I had dinner at the local Polish Restaurant with my dad and my uncle. We had drinks and caught up with a friend from high school.

For thanksgiving, my mom joined us at APL's parents house with his aunt and several of his cousins, where we watched football and played with his parent's beautiful Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Dinner was absolutely delicious and I ate way too much.

We had breakfast with my friend LK's mom. LK was not in town, but we have been friends since we were 5, so her mom is sort of my second mom. Then CC, her boyfriend, and I went to see another friend from high school who I hadn't seen in forever and meet her her adorable six month old baby boy. I have to admit that this part was a little bit tough for me because I got tired after only about five minutes of holding the baby. My arms and hands hurt from supporting him. It freaked me out a little bit about how I will ever manage to take care of my own kids. But then APL and I decided that we would develop some sort of quick release baby sling, to save my arms from having to hold the baby all the time. I know we can make it work, but it is still sort of overwhelming to think about how different caring for my kids will be with RA than it would have been without RA.

On Saturday, we went to APL's 10 year high school reunion! Man was that ever a blast from the past! Since APL and I went to the same high school, I knew some of the people there and it was fun to see them after so long. (DISCLAIMER: APL and I were not dating in high school. Though we had mutual friends and went to prom in the same group, we didn't really get to know each other until we "re-met" my sophomore year of college. So the high school connection is like a weird coincidence). On Sunday we had breakfast with my dad and my uncle and then some of the people from the reunion had a picnic at the local park. I got to hold one of APL's classmate's six month old little boy and was happy that it didn't tire me out so quickly that day. That made me feel a little bit better.

Unfortunately, since then I've been feeling quite a bit worse. Though I really, really enjoyed getting to see and visit with so many people, and despite our best efforts to take it easy last week, I think we still went past my limits, leaving me extremely fatigued from it all. It didn't help that we had to get up at 3:45am on Monday to make our 7:00 flight at LAX to get on an 11:15am bus from DIA to get back to Boulder in time for me to go to my 2:30pm class. Perhaps not the best planning on our part. Perhaps these days it's worth spending an extra $200 on plane tickets if the alternative is going to wipe me out.

Not to mention that traveling with RA can be tricky. On top of the fatigue from such a busy week, since I am so tall sitting crammed into an airplane or bus seat has never been comfortable. Having my joints motionless for long periods of time leads to even more soreness than I had to begin with.

Today my EVERYTHING hurts. Toes, ankles, hips (damn do my hips ever hurt!!), shoulders, elbows, wrists (that stupid right wrist is still hurting despite wearing a brace all week), fingers, even my jaw. APL literally had to lift me out of bed and help me get dressed so that I could get to class this morning.

Needless to say this pain is not conducive to the hours I need to spend in front of the computer over the next week to prepare for my law school exams next Thursday and Friday. My hips are uncomfortable no matter what kind of sitting position I am in, typing hurts my fingers, and mousing hurts my wrist. And, since it's never fun to go to the doctors, it doesn't help that I also have a billionty doctor's appointments to attend to (ok, ok, three this week two next week). But, at least the doctor at my appointment this morning finally gave me the swine flu vaccine since I have a compromised immune system. So at least I won't get the swine flu on top of everything else. Hooray?

You might wonder why, if it hurts to sit at a computer, I bothered to waste 20 minutes typing this blog post. Honestly? I don't really know. It doesn't make sense. It probably would have been better to spend the past 20 minutes on my administrative law outline. But, somehow blogging here always seems to make me feel better. Somehow it allows me to vent my frustrations, which keeps them from distracting me when I finally do actually get to work. Hopefully it will help me be more productive. Which would be good because I have A TON of work to do in the next week.

And the little piggy cried Wee!! Wee!! Wee!! all the way home where she wished she could crawl into bed to rest her aching joints and never go to law school again. But at least she won't get the swine flu.

7 comments:

1. Boppie. Boppies fit around Mommy (or Daddy's) waist to support the baby and give arms a break. They're made for sitting, but we could rig it for standing!

2. Piggie-based postings are the best. Kudos to you for getting both the title nursery rhyme and swine flu in there. :)

3. I (as the speaker of many) am THRILLED that you posted. I think of blogging as screaming into the great void, only I know I'm heard and no one has to think about what best to say (ie, "Oh I'm sorry." "That's terrible." ...)

4. If screaming into the great void (literally) is what this situation calls for, then go at it, my dear. Scream away. Call me and I'll scream with you!!

I think I'm going to invent a baby hovercraft. Just put the baby in it and it follows you around so you can keep an eye on the baby and keep the baby out of trouble without making you ow. ~;o) I'll be a millionaire!!

Just read all the past posts that I've missed for the past month - I know they're sort of about stuff that sucks sometimes, but mainly they make me laugh. You're doing awesome and I'm really glad you have this blog.

P.S., I wouldn't worry about the baby thing too much. You and APL are going to have the TINIEST baby evah!